The project's budget must be proportionate to:

• The activities planned,
• the project's duration,
• and the number of partners involved.

The allocation among the partners must reflect the activities and outputs planned each semester, as well as each partner's responsibilities.

To plan the budget, the partnership should identify the resources needed by each partner to complete the activities and estimate the related costs and when they will be paid.

Based on experience of previous programmes, a project's total budget usually ranges from 1 MEUR to 2 MEUR.

The total budget of the project includes the costs foreseen for both the core phase and the follow-up phase.

However, in the planning phase of the budget, especially when preparing the project's spending plan, it is important to take into consideration the activities foreseen.

The main activities of the follow-up phase are related to monitoring the results, exchange of experience on policy improvements if relevant and pilot actions if relevant.

Considering these activities might be less intense than the activities expected during the core-phase, this should be taken into consideration when drawing up the project's budget and should be reflected in the spending plan.

Budget amounts can be reallocated from one cost category to another, and the budget of a cost category can be exceeded (without a maximum limit) if this is fully justified by a project’s needs and the project’s activities remain in line with the application form.

Budget amounts can be re-allocated between partners too. Two types of budget change between partners are possible:

1. A budget reallocation of up to 20% of the total partner budget stated in the latest approved application form (flexibility rule) A partner’s total budget can be exceeded by a maximum of 20 % of the original total amount if this is compensated by an underspend in the budget(s) of other partner(s). This type of budget reallocation does not require the programme’s formal prior approval but must be reported and justified through the progress report.
2. A budget reallocation of over 20% of the total partner budget stated in the latest approved application form A budget reallocation between partners greater than the 20% budget flexibility limit requires a formal approval by the managing authority/ joint secretariat and it must be incorporated in the application form through a request for change procedure (“major budget change”). In principle, a major budget change should happen only once during a project’s lifetime.

Budget reallocations between partners and cost categories are possible on the condition that the total amount(s) of Interreg Funds and/or Norwegian funding awarded to a project are not exceeded.

Norwegian partners are ineligible to Interreg Fund but can receive up to 50% from pre-allocated national funds that Norway makes available to support its direct participation in Interreg Europe programme.

Under the Interreg Europe programme, the project activities are co-financed by the Interreg Fund at either 70% or 80% depending on the legal status of the project partner.

Public or public equivalent bodies have an 80% co-financing rate while private not for profit bodies have a 70% co-financing rate.

The remaining 30% or 20% co-financing must be provided by the partners themselves and it may come from the partners’ own budget or from other sources.

National public co-financing is ensured in certain member states.

For more information, please contact your national point of contact.

For project partners from EU Member States, project activities are co-financed by the Interreg Fund at either 70% or 80% depending on the legal status of the project partner.

The remaining 30% or 20% must be provided by the partners themselves.

Partners’ own contributions may come from their own budgets or from other sources. Each partner must make a commitment to provide their own contribution through a declaration.

National, regional or local public authorities; institutions governed by public law and private non-profit bodies based in the 27 EU Member States, the seven EU candidate countries of the program as well as in Norway and Switzerland are eligible for Interreg Europe funding.

Public authorities are generally understood to be national, regional, or local authorities.

In order to be considered a public law body / body governed by public law, an organisation must comply with Article 2.4 of Directive 2014/24/EU, according to which: ‘bodies governed by public law’ means bodies that have all the following characteristics:

• (a) they are established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character;
• (b) they have legal personality; and
• (c) they are financed, for the most part, by the State, regional, or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law; or are subject to management supervision by those authorities or bodies; or have an administrative, managerial, or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the State, regional, or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law; […].

In the context of the Interreg Europe programme a private non-profit body must comply with the following criteria:

• a) they do not have an industrial or commercial character
• b) they have a legal personality
• c) they are not financed, for the most part, by the state, regional, or local authorities, or other bodies governed by public law; or are not subject to management supervision by those bodies; or not having an administrative, managerial, or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the State, regional, or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law.

In view of the above criteria, some partner states consider organisations such as cluster organisations, chambers of commerce, business and entrepreneurs’ associations or trade unions to be private non-profit bodies.

In Interreg Europe projects, private non-profit bodies cannot take on the role of lead partner.

Each partner state is responsible for confirming the legal status of partners located on its territory. If there is any doubt in this respect, applicants should contact their partner state representative directly. Partner state contact details are available on the programme’s website.

Based on Regulation (EU) No 2021/1059, the different cost categories applicable in the programme are:

• staff
• office and administration
• travel and accommodation
• external expertise and services
• equipment
• infrastructure and works (only for pilot actions)

In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 2021/1060 Article 64 (1) (c) i, VAT is eligible for projects the total cost of which is below EUR 5,000,000 (including VAT).

Considering their usual budget (between 1 MEUR and 2MEUR), VAT is eligible for Interreg Europe projects.

We expect that most regions will reach policy improvements during the core phase.

For the rest of the regions, the action plans will be integrated directly in the relevant section of the last progress report of the core phase.

We estimate that such a task should be easily performed using internal resources (staff costs).

Therefore, we do not expect project partners to plan costs for the elaboration of the action plan at application stage.

Control costs for the verification of expenditure are considered eligible unless there are stricter national rules established at partner state level.

Projects should therefore foresee a budget for these controls depending on the control arrangements applicable in the relevant Partner States for each of the project partners.

This point should be carefully checked in the specific-country requirements available on the Interreg Europe website.

For more information, watch the video  (4:48 - 5:06).

Costs related to the preparation of the project are covered for approved projects.

These costs are fixed in the form of a lump sum of EUR 17,500 Interreg Fund for approved projects (EUR 14,000 Interreg Fund  and EUR 8,750 Norwegian funding).

This amount is automatically included in the lead partner’s budget in the application form and will be added to the reported expenditure of the lead partner in the first progress report.

However, even if the preparation costs are allocated to the lead partner’s budget, the partnership should share them to reflect the involvement of the partners in the preparation of the application form.

This distribution should be done in a fair and transparent way and included in the partnership agreement.

For more information, watch the video (0:30 - 1:34).

Costs for project activities are eligible from the date of the monitoring committee’s approval of the project until the end date of the project.

The end date of the project marks the end of the eligibility period for expenditure, and it is the date by which the last progress report must be submitted to the joint secretariat.

Under Interreg Europe programme rules, staff costs can only be reported according to the fixed percentage method.

It is therefore not possible to use other methods such as the calculation of staff costs on an hourly basis with timesheets.

The staff costs of employees working part-time on the project must be calculated on a real costs basis using a fixed percentage of the gross employment cost (incl. employer’s contributions) in accordance with article 55 (5) of Regulation (EU) No 2021/1060.

Staff costs should be planned in order to reflect the involvement of the staff member(s) working on the project.

Applicants should estimate how many staff members will work on the project and how much time they will dedicate to project tasks, and plan the budget accordingly.

For employees working full time on the project, the total monthly gross employment cost (incl. employer’s social contributions) can be claimed.

For Interreg Europe, the staff costs of employees working part-time on the project must be calculated on a real costs basis using a fixed percentage of the gross employment cost (incl. employer’s contributions).

This fixed percentage should be an average of the time spent by the staff member(s) on the project activities.

For more information, watch the video (1:34 - 3:41).

Staff costs cover costs for staff members employed by the partner organisation and who work on the project directly.

Staff costs refers to the partner organisation’s gross employment costs, which usually comprise:

1. Salary payments (specified in an employment/ work contract)
2. Other costs directly linked to salary payments paid and not recoverable by the employer: Employment taxes
   Social security (including health coverage and pension contributions).

In accordance with the partner organisation’s personnel policy, costs such as bonuses, fuel, lease car, relocation benefits, luncheon vouchers, etc. can be fully or partly claimed after calculating the share eligible for the project.

Only the costs or the share of the costs that are not recoverable by the employer are eligible.

For more information, watch the video (0:47 - 2:33).

The task assignment letter is a document setting out the fixed percentage worked on the project by a staff member of a partner organisation.

Unless this percentage is indicated in an another document (e.g. the employment contract), the task assignment letter should be provided as a supporting document when reporting the costs.

It usually:

• is issued for the specific employee at the beginning of the period to which it applies
• is dated and signed by the employee and a line manager/ supervisor
• contains the percentage of time dedicated to the project per month and a description of the project related role, responsibilities, and monthly tasks assigned to the employee in question and which provides sufficient evidence for the time allocation
• Is reviewed (e.g., during the annual staff appraisal) and the percentage and/or description of tasks adjusted, if really needed (e.g., if the role, tasks and/or responsibilities of the employee change).

A template is available on below.

With the 15% flat rate, projects do not need to plan a detailed budget for the ‘travel and accommodation’ cost category.

The application form will automatically calculate a budget corresponding to 15% of the planned staff costs.

When it comes to reporting travel and accommodation expenditure, the flat rate of 15% is automatically applied to the reported eligible staff costs of each project partner concerned.

Project partners do not need to provide justification or supporting documents for travel and accommodation costs. Nor do they need to document that the expenditure has been incurred and paid or that the flat rate corresponds to reality.

For more information, watch the video (4:22 - 6:43).

In Interreg Europe, the travel and accommodation costs are calculated:

1. as a flat rate of 15% of the partner’s staff costs
2. or on a real cost basis, only when the flat rate is not an appropriate method for the partner for justified reasons (e.g., the project partner comes from an outermost or remote region).

For the sake of simplification, project partners are asked to choose option 1 (flat rate).

If a project partner chooses option 2 (real costs), they must justify why in the application form.

Each project partner will have to indicate their choice between options 1 and 2 in the application form. It will not be possible to change this choice after the signature of the subsidy contract.

The flat rate for travel and accommodation costs represents a major simplification. With the 15% flat rate, projects do not need to plan a detailed budget for the ‘travel and accommodation’ cost category.

The application form will automatically calculate a budget corresponding to 15% of the planned staff costs for each partner choosing this option.

When it comes to reporting travel and accommodation expenditure, the flat rate of 15% is automatically applied to the reported eligible staff costs of each project partner concerned.

Project partners do not need to provide justification or supporting documents for travel and accommodation costs. Nor do they need to document that the expenditure has been incurred and paid or that the flat rate corresponds to reality.

External expertise and service costs include expenditure paid, based on contracts or written agreements, and related invoices or requests for reimbursement to external service providers who are subcontracted to carry out certain tasks or activities linked to delivering the project.

In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 2021/1059 Article 42, expenditure on external expertise and service are limited to the following services and expertise provided by an organisation other than the project partner:

• studies or surveys (such as evaluations, strategies, concept notes, design plans, handbooks)
• training
• translations
• development, modifications and updates to IT systems and website
• promotion, communication, publicity, promotional items and activities or information linked to an project or to a programme as such
• financial management
• services related to the organisation and implementation of events or meetings (including rent, catering, or interpretation)
• participation in events (such as registration fees)
• legal consultancy and notarial services, technical and financial expertise, other consultancy and accountancy services
• intellectual property rights
• verifications pursuant to point (a) of Article 74(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 and Article 46(1) of Regulation (EU) No 2021/1059 (i.e. cost of expenditure control)
• the provision of guarantees by a bank or other financial institution where required by Union or national law or by a programming document adopted by the monitoring committee
• travel and accommodation for external experts, speakers, chairpersons of meetings and service providers
• other specific expertise and services needed for projects. In the project budget in the application form, the following types of external expertise and services costs can be selected: include list

Project management services can be externalised and related costs should be planned (and later on reported) under the cost category 'External expertise and services', in section F.2 of the application form, under the type of costs "management - external support".

In case project management is externalised, this should be indicated in the relevant section of the application form (Section C.8.3 Financial management and reporting).

The project end date marks the end of the eligibility of the expenditure.

This means that by this date:

• all project activities must be completed (incl. all procedures related to the administrative closure of the project, such as financial control)
• all payments must have been made, meaning debited from the bank account
• the last progress report is submitted to the joint secretariat.

Any expenditure incurred, invoiced, or paid after the project end date indicated in the latest approved application form will be ineligible.

Therefore, in order to be eligible, costs for the verification of expenditure of the final progress report have to be paid out before the end date of the project, provided the check itself is be concluded before the end date.

There is no need to provide the task-assignment letter to the Joint Secretariat.

However, it should be submitted to the controller as part of the supporting documents for staff costs reported.

Country-specific information, including information about the control system and the verification of expenditure can be found on Interreg Europe website.

Both signatures are valid.

The most important is that the declaration is actually signed: “Declarations must be signed.

Electronic signatures will be accepted if evidence of this electronic signature is provided This evidence usually takes the form of an electronic certificate included in the pdf document.

If is not possible to supply this certificate, then the lead applicant must provide evidence that the document has been electronically signed (e.g., certificate to be scanned together with the declaration and submitted as one pdf document in the Portal).”

Associated policy authorities do not directly receive funding.

However, their travel and accommodation costs may be paid by the main partner (and reported as external expertise costs).

No, please do not create your own project logo.

We will give you your main visual at the start of your project. It will consist of the programme’s logo and your project’s acronym, and will comply with the Regulations and the programme requirements.

You must use your project’s main visual on all your communication materials intended for the public and for participants in your activities.

No, please do not build your own website. We will provide one for you.

Your project website will have:

• a homepage,
• a news section,
• an event section,
• the good practices you’ve submitted,
• a library for documents you wish to share with your audience,
• a contact section,
• and the possibility to create extra pages

You will be responsible for editing and updating your website at least once every six months.

In your application, you must include these required activities:

• Main project visual
• A3 poster
• Plaque (if relevant)
• Mention on your institutional website and social media accounts (if available)
• Updating your project website
• Final high-level event

You must also include up to 10 recommended activities such as:

• The programme’s events
• Policy Learning Platform events
• European institution events
• Partner State events

Finally, you should also include support activities for your project implementation. We organise various webinars and workshops for you where you can meet with other projects and exchange with them on different topics.

Don’t forget. Don’t just plan them, but include them in your budget.